Oppenheimer v. City of Los Angeles

232 P.2d 26, 104 Cal. App. 2d 545, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1658
California Court of Appeal·Decided June 1, 1951·No. Civ. 18034·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

VALLÉE, J.

Appeal by plaintiff from (1) a judgment of dismissal entered pursuant to an order sustaining, without leave to amend, the demurrers of the city of Los Angeles, Clemence B. Horrall, V. Fallon, and W. Erskine to the second amended complaint, (2) an order denying plaintiff’s motion to vacate the judgment, (3) an order striking plaintiff’s amendment to the second amended complaint, (4) an order quashing a subpoena duces tecum, and (5) an order denying plaintiff’s motion to annul the order quashing the subpoena duces tecum. The foregoing defendants, in the order named, are the city of Los Angeles, a municipal corporation, the chief of police, and two police officers of the city.

The first count of the second amended complaint alleges that on November 12, 1948, while on the premises of a restaurant located at 648 South Broadway, “the defendant city by and through its agents and employees, defendants, Doe One and Doe Two [police officers], and each did, accost, seize and wilfully assault plaintiff, bruise and twist his right arm, and unlawfully arrest him at nighttime, without a warrant and against his will, on a pretended charge of a misdemeanor not witnessed by either of them, and then did turn *548 the plaintiff over to the defendants V. Fallon and W. Brskine, for them to take the said plaintiff to jail”; that “defendants V. Fallon and W. Brskine and each did, in fact then take plaintiff to city jail, on such purported charge of a misdemeanor not witnessed by them, and without a warrant of arrest, and there imprison the said plaintiff and restrain him of his liberty without any right or authority so to do, until the afternoon of the 17th day of November, 1948”; that defendant Clemence B. Horrall, “then Chief of Police of the defendant city, on or about April 6, 1949, in effect ratified, condoned and abetted the cruel and lawless actions of the other non-corporate defendants, and has never repudiated them. ’ ’ The complaint recites the filing of a verified damage claim with defendant city, which claim was subsequently denied. Damage in the sum of $19,000 is alleged.

The second count, directed against defendant city, alleges that on November 12, 1948, and while plaintiff was wrongfully confined, the city maintained and operated a jail which was unfit, overcrowded, unsanitary and not a suitable place of detention; the food was not fit for human consumption and caused plaintiff to become ill; plaintiff was confined in a “stall” with the “dregs and degenerates of human society, as well as thieves and other parasites and disreputable characters ’ ’; that in so confining plaintiff the defendant city was “guilty of a wanton disregard of the rights and feelings of this plaintiff,” to his damage in the sum of $19,000.

The demurrers of the above named defendants were based on the grounds that the second amended complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, that a cause of action for false imprisonment was improperly united with a cause of action for assault and battery and not separately stated, and that the complaint was uncertain.

The demurrer of the city was properly sustained. A municipality cannot be held in damages for the torts of its police officers acting in a governmental capacity. (Stedman v. San Francisco, 63 Cal. 193; Brindamour v. Murray, 7 Cal.2d 73, 78 [59 P.2d 1009]; Wood v. Cox, 10 Cal.App.2d 652, 653 [52 P.2d 565]; Abrahamson v. City of Ceres, 90 Cal.App.2d 523, 526 [203 P.2d 98].) A municipal corporation exercises a purely governmental function in maintaining and operating a jail. (See cases cited Anno. 46 A.L.R. 97; 50 A.L.R. 268; 61 A.L.R. 569.) The second count therefore does not state a cause of action.

The demurrer was likewise properly sustained as to *549 the chief of police. A chief of police is not liable in damages for the unlawful acts and omissions of the subordinates of the department unless he has directed such acts or personally cooperated in the alleged false imprisonment. (Abrahamson v. City of Ceres, 90 Cal.App.2d 523, 526 [203 P.2d 98]; Downey v. Allen, 36 Cal.App.2d 269, 273 [97 P.2d 515].) The only allegation with respect to the chief of police was that he “in effect ratified, condoned and abetted” the actions of the other individual defendants. This allegation falls far short of an allegation that he directed such acts or personally cooperated in the false imprisonment.

As to respondents Fallon and Erskine, the complaint states a cause of action. A police officer is without right to arrest an individual, without a warrant, for a misdemeanor not committed in his presence. (Pen. Code, § 836; Collins v. Owens, 77 Cal.App.2d 713, 718 [176 P.2d 372].) Where a complaint is based upon an arrest made without a warrant, for a misdemeanor not committed within the presence of an officer, as it is here, all that need be alleged to charge the unlawful arrest is (1) the arrest without process, (2) the imprisonment, and (3) the damage. (Collins v. Owens, supra, p. 718; Kaufman v. Brown, 93 Cal.App.2d 508, 511-12 [209 P.2d 156].) While other matters not necessary to a cause of action for> false imprisonment are here alleged, the complaint contains the vital allegations. As against a general demurrer the surplus allegations must be disregarded.

Respondents Fallon and Erskine say that the complaint does not state a cause of action against them for false imprisonment since it charges them only with transporting appellant from the place of his arrest to the place of detention, and not with the actual arrest. This is a misstatement of the pleading. The complaint, in addition to charging them with transporting plaintiff, alleges that without a warrant of arrest, these officers imprisoned him and deprived him of his liberty without any right or authority from November 12, 1948, until November 17, 1948.

Van Fleet v. West American Ins. Co., 5 Cal.App.2d 125 [42 P.2d 378, 43 P.2d 557], cited by respondent in this behalf, is not in point. In that case an officer was held not liable for false imprisonment for an arrest without a warrant of a person when a felony had in fact been committed and the officer had reasonable cause for believing the person arrested had committed it. Consequently, it was held that other persons, *550 not officers, who transported the arresting officer and the plaintiff to the police station were not liable.

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Oppenheimer v. City of Los Angeles, 232 P.2d 26, 104 Cal. App. 2d 545, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1658 (Cal. Ct. App. 1951).

232 P.2d 26 (Oppenheimer v. City of Los Angeles) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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